Viral trendsetters BuzzFeed have just announced a significant cash injection – $19.3 million led by NEA. Previous investors RRE, Hearst, SoftBank, and Lerer Ventures also participated – as did Michael and Kass Lazerow, Buddy Media co-founders.
“We have the senior management, board, and investors we need to build the next great media company: socially native, tech enabled, with massive scale. We are all focused on that big goal and raised this capital to move even faster,” said Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed Founder and CEO.
In a release, BuzzFeed touts their coverage of the 2012 election aided by their “ten content verticals and bureaus in Washington D.C.” They say that this round of funding will help them “build a media company for the social age.” And $19.3 million is a pretty hefty chunk of change for the site, which received 15 million last year.
“We couldn’t be more excited to build the defining media company for the social era with Jonah and the team,” said Patrick Kerins, NEA investor and BuzzFeed Board member. “We think BuzzFeed will be one of the great media companies of the next decade.”
According to BuzzFeed, the site topped 40 million unique visitors last month. The claim that much of that was driven my social referrals – mainly Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They also claim that mobile accounts for over one third of all BuzzFeed traffic. BuzzFeed currently employs 180 people.